


what's your reason?

by remi_mae



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Police Officer Dick Grayson, i don't know how to tag, kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-23 21:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20235943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remi_mae/pseuds/remi_mae
Summary: If you asked Amy Rohrbach about her partner, there wasn't a lot she could tell you. Dick Grayson is a good cop, and a good partner, but he doesn't really talk about himself in any detail, so when his younger brother shows up at the police station, Amy is both surprised, and not. After all, can you really be surprised when you know so few details anyway?Or, Amy Rohrbach meets Tim Drake and learns more about her rookie partner.





	what's your reason?

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this at the beginning of the year and I just finished it, mostly because I had no idea where I was going with it. I just wanted something with Dick being a cop, and somehow it ended up being almost a character study? Not quite, I don't think, but hey, it's something, and I don't hate it, so posting it anyway.
> 
> This could be taken as a no capes AU, though it wasn't intentionally written that way. Timeline wise, Dick's a cop in Bludhaven and Tim's just been adopted, so do with that what you will. (Also, title is subject to change because I suck at them; I swear I had to put off posting this a good 18 hours because I was stuck on a title.)

"Oi, Grayson. Someone's here to see you." Amy looks up when Grayson does, curious, but is just left confused - a teenage boy is standing there, shifting awkwardly. When she looks over at Grayson, ready to ask if he knows who it is, she pauses. Grayson's _beaming_, waving the kid over without a word or any hesitation. The teenager lets a clearly relieved smile slip onto his face, his shoulders relaxing as he makes his way across the room.

"Who's that?" Amy asks, before the kid is close enough to hear.

"Little brother," Grayson says, grin not slipping from his face - until the boy is close enough, and they can both see he's limping. It's subtle - he's obviously trying to hide it - but it's there. Grayson's grin fades into a frown, and he jumps out of his chair, hurrying the boy - his little brother, apparently - to sit down, and immediately starts fussing over him.

"Timmy what _happened_?"

"I fell." Grayson clearly doesn't buy it, and Timmy flails his arms around some, trying to reassure Grayson. "It's nothing serious, I promise! I just... fell, landed weird. It's not bad, it just hurts a bit sometimes. I promise, Dick." He still doesn't seem to buy it. "D'you really think Alfie would let me leave my _bed_ if it was serious?"

"Ah. Well. You've got a point there." Grayson stops fussing, mostly, hopping up onto his desk and ruffling the boys hair. Timmy whines quietly, but he's smiling, doesn't push Grayson's hand away - if anything, he almost seems to lean into it the touch a little bit. They seem... close. Amy didn't even know Grayson _had_ any siblings - she's pretty sure she asked once and he told her he was an only child.

The boys talk for a few minutes, catching up. Amy doesn't mean to eavesdrop so much as they don't seem to realize she's still there, too caught up with each other. Timmy asks Grayson about work and the city, and Grayson asks Timmy about school and home. It's easy and casual, although there are some comments that don't really make sense. Inside jokes, she'd assume. She doesn't know much about Grayson's home life, other than the fact that he's a Gotham native who moved to Blüdhaven for work, probably.

"Ah!" Grayson pauses in the middle of a sentence, looking over at her, eyes wide. "I forgot you were still here." Amy just raises an eyebrow, amused.

"I assumed so." Her partner flushes a little, before turning back to his brother, who's laughing at him. He pouts, clearly over acting, and whines at his little brother, a smile tugging at his lips the whole time.

"Right, anyway. Timmy, this is my partner, Detective Amy Rohrbach. Amy, this is my little brother, Tim."

The boy is as polite as his older brother, if a bit shy, holding out his hand and mumbling a quiet "it's nice to meet you," almost immediately followed by a slightly louder "Dick talks about you a lot, when he's home."

_That_ gets her attention.

"I'll have to admit, he's never mentioned you." Her eyes flick over to her partner, half expecting him to look embarrassed or sheepish, but... he's not. He's smiling happily at his little brother, so obviously fond.

"I'm, uh, kinda new to the family?" She raises an eyebrow again, and Tim looks to Grayson for help.

"Adoption." He says, and Amy finds herself nodding. "Timmy's been around for a while, but he's only recently officially joined the family. I've always thought of him as a little brother though." He reaches out like he's going to ruffle the boys hair again, but just rests his hand on the back of his neck, squeezing lightly. Tim just smiles.

If she were more curious, or more an asshole, she might ask what happened, but it's rather obvious; Tim was either removed from his biological family's home, or they died, and Grayson's parents adopted him. Their families must've been friends.

"The actual adoption is more of a formality anyway. I'm pretty sure Timmy's spent more time with B and I than his parents, and we've only known him a couple of years." He sounds almost annoyed, and Tim ducks his head a little.

"I've known Bruce since I was little, at least kind of." He points out, and Grayson hums quietly, nodding.

"That's true. More than you knew me, yet you still like me more~" Tim flushes, shake his head, to try and deny it maybe, but Grayson just smiles the same fond smile.

"I'm missing something there, aren't I?" Amy asks. Grayson gives a sort of shrug.

"We met once, when Tim was only, what, three?" The boy gives a nod, so Grayson continues. "My biological parents were performers, trapeze artists. Tim's parents took him to the circus, and we took a picture together. His parents knew B as well, our adoptive dad."

"Neighbours too," Tim adds quietly.

"Well, as close to neighbours as we can get with the manor. You're almost better off taking a car to get from our place to your old place."

There are so many things to take in that Amy's not really sure where to start. Biological parents being trapeze artists, performers, that makes sense. Grayson said he did gymnastics, which isn't untrue, if he did the same things his parents did. He also mentioned Tim having been taken to the circus and met him, which... she's not going to lie, explains _so many_ things about Grayson. The big thing there is 'manor' though. No one's going to call their house a manor unless it actually is one, or it's grand enough to be considered one - and if you're better off taking a car to get to the neighbours house? Jeez, is Grayson's family rich or something?

Amy doesn't ask though, because as curious as she is, she's not going to grill her partner in front of his little brother, especially when she knows for a fact he hasn't been back to Gotham for at least a few weeks. She'll just ask later, when Grayson's brother isn't there. Hopefully he won't avoid the questions, like he's sometimes known to do when she, or anyone else, tries to ask about his family. The fact that he told her that Tim was his little brother without any hesitation is a good sign, hopefully.

"You know, your parents being performers explains _so much_ about you." Amy settles for saying. Grayson looks almost torn between looking a bit sheepish and nodding - Tim stifles a laugh though, which she'll count as a win.

"I mean, she's not _wrong_, is she?"

"Timmy!" Grayson looks mock offended - well, to anyone else he might actually look offended, but Amy can see he's trying not to smile. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Alfred and B have told me stories about you, when you first came to stay at the manor." It almost sounds like a threat, and Grayson seems to take it that way, if the look on his face is anything to go by.

"Well. You can't just say that and not tell me some of these stories." She cocks at eyebrow at her partner, who looks a bit embarrassed and is trying to get Tim not to say anything. Tim just laughs.

"Mostly they involved Dick hanging off chandeliers and things. Almost giving B a heart attack a lot." Grayson mumbles something under his breath, but Tim doesn't stop. "Just generally being a precocious child."

"You can take the child out of the circus, but you can't take the circus out of the child?" Grayson shrugs a little.

"Evidently," Tim says at the same time Amy says "Clearly." Grayson blinks, and then laughs. Tim's not too far behind.

Even if they're not biologically related, Amy can see the similarities - she would have believed them if Grayson told her they _were_ biologically related. They have the same dark, messy hair and blue eyes, although they're different shades. Tim's paler than Grayson, though she would also say that Tim was paler than most people. Their facial features look almost nothing alike, and while Grayson is on the taller side, Tim certainly seems smaller, but he's also still a growing teenager, so he could very well end up over taking his brother in height.

Watching the brothers talk, Amy can't really help the fondness she feels. She likes Grayson as is - he's good at his job, and he's one of the few cops she genuinely trusts in this very corrupt town - and seeing him interact with his brother is just reinforcing that. Dick Grayson isn't just good at his job, he's a good person, which makes him all the better as a cop. When he first showed up, she was honestly thinking it was just a matter of time before something broke him, shattered the optimism he seems to have, and yet he's still as determined to make a difference as he was when she first met him. It's refreshing, for one, to have a cop who actually cares about their job and not just the paycheque, or the power that comes with the badge. She's wondered why he'd become a cop, when she first met him. When she asked, she got the typical, almost default, answer - "I just want to help," - but the longer she knows him, the more she thinks he was just saying what he thought she wanted to hear, the typical answer that's probably true, but not quite correct. Watching him talk with his brother, learning that they're both adopted, it makes her think family has something to do with it.

Part of her does want to ask, when Tim's left, but at the same time, she's not really sure if he'll actually answer her, and she doesn't want to push him away. They're partners, first and foremost, and they have to work together, and if she pushes too much, work will be hell from the awkwardness. So, she decides, she'll just have to get Grayson to open up more - which, she thinks, glancing at the clock, will need to wait for another day.

"Hey Grayson," Both brothers look up, and Amy has to stifle a laugh at how in sync they are. "What time do you get off today?" Grayson's eyebrows furrow, before he glances at the clock and blinks a few times. "That's what I thought." Grayson then looks down at the pile of paperwork he'd been neglecting, and looks sheepish. Any other day, she'd gladly tell him he should probably stay overtime and work on those, but today... well, she's in a good mood. And her own work has been done for a bit.

"Hand it over, I'll finish up what I can," Grayson looks from the paperwork, to her, to Tim, and back to her and immediately tries to argue that he can't let her do that, which doesn't surprise her. "Go, catch up with your brother properly." He looks like he wants to argue some more, but decides against it.

"Okay. Okay. I owe you though." Amy just nods, accepting the paperwork when Grayson passes it over after a few moments of shuffling through them. She would've done it anyway, because he tends to help her with her paperwork when he finishes up early, but hey, if he wants to owe her, he said it, not her.

She starts looking over the paperwork, flicking her pen in her fingers, while Grayson finishes up with a few pieces, just needing to sign them and hand them off to someone else, before he's packing up. Tim sits quietly the whole time, first watching her and Grayson's exchange, before following his brother around the room with his eyes as he finishes up. When Grayson's finished, she gets a quiet "it was nice to meet you," from Tim, which she returns with a smile.

"Thank you," Grayson says, nudging Tim towards the door a little. "Our dad and I don't always see eye to eye, but Tim is one thing we agree on. Because I'm here, and they're in Gotham, I don't get to see him as often as I feel like I should, so... thanks." Amy waves it off, tells him to just have a good time with his brother, but she's left with the feeling that her partner's answer to why he became a cop is a lot more apparent now than it was before.


End file.
